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Thanks so much to everyone who visited the shop last week! My posting has been sporadic at best this year so it really surprised and touched me that so many of you still check in. And a big mahalo to everyone who bought one of the ami sets!

It was wonderful to finally get some things into the shop and I started thinking about what I might make next. And then the other night I found myself working on a little black pup and quickly became obsessed with making accessories for him as well. So after many hours, countless stitches, and many episodes of Jon and Kate Plus 8, I came up with a "puppy set" featuring a removable collar and leash, food dish, dog bed with a furry pillow insert, dog carrier, squeaky kitty toy and rope dog chew! I was really excited about getting it into the shop, but everything came to a halt when I tried to take pics.

It's hard enough taking pics of small things, but I find it almost impossible to get good shots of small dark things. No matter how I posed him, I couldn't get a pic that gave a good idea of what he really looks like. He's about 1" high and similar to this guy, but he's seated and looking up, with his left front leg extended to shake your hand. But you can't tell that from the pic. All you see is head, ears, collar and black blob. Grrr!

This ones not much better.

Here, he's trying his best to get you to shake his hand, but to no avail, cause all you see is blob.

All right then. Only three weeks late, but the babies are finally ready for the shop! My apologies for the delay, but I could never seem to find the time to finish these little guys up. Anywho, here they all are. I'm putting seven babies for sale in the shop on Tuesday July 1 at 8 am Hawaii Time. The babies will be sold in sets and will include the following: 1) a mini bassinet 2) mini crocheted afghan 2) rubber duckie 3) teething ring 4) baby bottle 5) bunny ami doll and a quilted play mat shown here.

I've been working on these tots since last fall and I had originally planned to just sell the babies by themselves, but I couldn't bear to send them out into the world without at least the barest necessities a baby needs. So first I made the bassinets, which of course led to the mini afghans and then came the baby bottles because babies are always hungry right? Teething rings are essential for comforting cutting teeth and a nice soft quilted play mat to cushion the fall of those first steps are a must. And all babies love toys, so I added the rubber duckies and bunny ami doll.

Oops, I almost forgot. The sets will also include a Mama Duckie riding toy! Possibly my favorite of all the baby gear.

Here's a side view. And all rides are free, no coins necessary!

And here's a complete set.

If you're interested in one of the baby sets please visit the shop on Tuesday and leave a comment for that set and I'll email you details on how to make payment. If you have any questions about the babies or the accessories please leave a comment here or email me. I've had so much fun putting these babies and their gear together and I hope whoever they end up with will enjoy them too. Mahalo!

Princess Pupule has plenty papayas
she loves to give um away
Now all of the neighbors they say
Oh me-yah, oh my-ya!
You really should try a little pieceof the Princess Pupule's papayaZazza zazza zazza zazza zay

Princess Pupule's not truly unrulyTo pass out papayas each dayFor all of the neighbors they say

She may give the fruitBut she holds onto the rootAnd so she has the fruit and the root to bootZazza zazza zazza zazza zay

One bright Sunday afternoon
It was field day in her papaya groves
But I reached the gate an hour too late
The customers were lined up in droves

So let this be a warning
Go early in the morning
And it is true you'll never rue the day

Princess Pupule has plenty papayas
And she loves to give um away
I mean papaya
She loves to give it away

Princess Pupule is a hapa-haole Hawaiian song we used to sing when I was a kid. Pupule (poo-poo-leh) means "crazy" in Hawaiian. I seem to remember we danced a hula to it for a May Day performance one year in elementary school. All the girls wore muumuus hitched up around our hips with a strip of cloth just like Hilo Hattie who popularized the song.

Just a quick post of some ami-tako's I made for Buddy a couple months back. They were really quick to make just an ami ball with some simple single crochet legs. I actually made a bunch more but these were all I could gather up. Mochi is crazy about them as well so I'm sure there's at least a few under the sofa.

And thank you everyone who sent their well wishes for the shop and a special thanks to those who purchased the tutorial! As usual I've been really busy at my day job and haven't had time for much crafting or blogging but I hope to put some finished crochet babies and maybe some finished baby kokeshi in the shop soon.

Tomorrow's Girls Day and I've been working on a little something that I had hoped to post today but it's not quite ready. Yesterday we had our annual Girls Daycelebration at my parent's with Japanese dolls, kimono dress up and special girl's day treats. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so instead here's a pic of a chibi kitty I made last week. Not related to hinamatsuri at all, but at least she's a girl cat.

He fell on his rump-a-pum-pum! Sorry, I couldn't resist posting another one. That Buddy, he's been such a jokey-jokester lately.

So we finally got the tree up this week and managed to do the decorations this afternoon. Thank goodness! But Buddy didn't seem to mind the bare tree with just the lights, which made me feel even more guilty that it took almost a week to finish all the decorating.

I've been crazy busy at work, so most of my Christmas plans have fallen by the wayside if not crossed off the list all together. Sometimes I think I should skip all blogging during December as it tends to make me feel worse seeing all the fabulous crafts and decorating everyone's doing while I barely got the tree up a week before Christmas. But the tree is up and most of the shopping is done, so who am I to complain?

Speaking of complaints, a lump of coal to the electronics retailer on Amazon who wanted to charge me $59.00 in standard delivery shipping charges for an item that cost $64.95 and only weighs 3 pounds. Hawaii may not be a part of the continental United States but that doesn't give you the right to rip us off on shipping. Auwe!

And on that same note, three cups of good cheer to whoever invented Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bars. They are aptly named and always a delight. Buddy and I whipped up a batch this afternoon after we decorated the tree. We used this recipe for a mock version I posted in January.

I'm in a "fowl" mood because of a particularly awful chicken cooking incident tonight. I was making mochiko chicken and as I was draining the cooked pieces on a plate I noticed that blood was seeping out of the chicken! Gross. I guess the oil wasn't hot enough and it didn't cook all the way through. Crap. Should've listened to Jenn and cut it into small pieces.

Anyway, how was your weekend? We had another busy one. Finally got Buddy's Halloween costume, which he wore all day today and we squeezed in a couple of Halloween crafts as well. Buddy made a freezer paper stencil shirt of his own design and I crocheted the little witch, but I'm not quite done with her pumpkin yet.

It's been ages since I did a freezer paper stencil and this one turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I forgot that most paint doesn't show up well on black shirts. So we ended up painting the entire stencil in white paint first, and then applied a second layer in the various colors.

By the way, the mochi from the other week is from my favorite mochi shop, Two Ladies Kitchen in Hilo on the Big Island. In case you didn't know I loooove mochi. It's by far my favorite dessert and I could eat it everyday. And Two Ladies Kitchen makes the best strawberry mochi. So ono! They made the favors for our wedding as well.

If you're ever in Hilo you have to pay them a visit. Here's an article the local paper did on them about ten years ago. If you scroll down to the bottom there's two recipes for making mochi, including one on how to make the strawberry mochi, although they're not recipes from Two Ladies Kitchen. (And yes, the mochiko in the mochi recipes is the same mochiko used in mochiko chicken.)

Okay, time to get ready for bed and Monday. Have a great one everyone!